Pigs is Pigs... oy vey!

Gerstein, David DK - ECN DGE at ECN.egmont.com
Mon Sep 1 02:08:02 CEST 2003


	Hey, Sigvald...

>Well I can tell you that some cultures have a much more serious view 
>on this matter than that. I am thinking about both Moslems and Jews 
>who sees pigs as unclean animals whose meat should not be eaten. 
>It will thus be interesting if anyone here can tell us about whether 
>pig-characters do appear in Arab and/or Hebrew Disney publications, 
>or if they are censored in any of those publications.

	I can answer here. Firstly, I'm a Jew, and secondly, I've also
helped an Arab friend of mine, Jehan Zetawi (you out there, Jehan?), in his
extensive research on this *exact* subject. Interesting, indeed...
	I'm not sure about in the old days; but today's Hebrew Disney comics
do show pigfaced characters appearing in Duckburg and Mouseton. I think of
Hydro Felbius in my dad's old Gyro story, "Rain-Dance Reversal" (D 96216);
he was really meant as a hippo, but was colored as a pig in many editions of
the story, and Israel went right ahead and showed him.
	Meanwhile, the Arab use of pig characters varies with the country,
as Jehan's research found. Publishers in Egypt, which Jehan saw as
comparatively liberal, let a pig stay a pig. But in Gulf countries such as
Kuwait, where the editors were more conservative, Jehan found McSwine
redrawn with a dog's nose and other pigfaces becoming unspecified creatures
(still rather piglike, but with nostrils removed from their snouts).

	David


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